Letter-card and the like having an opening device.



L. PLANCH'E.

LETTER CARD AND THE LIKE HAVING AN OPENING DEVICE. APPLICATION F ILED FEB. 23. 1915.

1 ,299,Q21 Patented Apr. 1,1919.

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L. PLANCHE.

LETTER CARD AND THE LIKE HAVINGAN OPENING DEVICE.

APPLlCATlON man FEB. 23. 1915.

1,299,021. I Patented Apr. 1,1919.

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LEON PLAN CHE, 0F PARIS, FRANCE, ASSIGNOR TO LOUIS CHARLES MAE'GER, OF ROU'EN,

1 FRANCE.

LETTER-CARD AND THE LIKE HAVING AN OPENING DEVICE.

Application filed February 23, 1915.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEON PLANCHE, a citizen of the Republic of France, residing at Paris, 130 Faubourg StQDenis, in the Re- .)ublic of France manufacturer have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Letter-Cards and the like Having Opening Devices, of which the following is a specification. I

It has already been proposed to provide on certain parts of letter cards or the like, by means of-lines of perforations, strips of paper easily torn off, one or both ends of the strip having a tongue easily pulled and plucked out when opening the card. Yet hitherto such devices have been very bothersome by reason of the fact that their tongues project and are liable to be caught by outer objects which accidentally tear them off during the transport or the manipulation of the cards.

The object'of this invention is to improve such opening devices and to do away with such inconvenience. One of such improvements consists in this that the tongue, instead of being in projection on the edge of the part to be torn ofi', is formed atsome distance within such edge and lies entirely on the part to be torn off, so that it is not liable to be caught accidentally; furthermore, as it is necessary to tear the letter-card or the like exactly up to its edge to secure a complete opening, I prolongate up to the said edge, beyond the tongue, at least one of the two lines of perforations which form the strip to be torn off, so that the tearing device extends continuously from one point of the contour of the letter-card to another point of such contour.

Another improvement consists in folding a letter card at its middle, and extending the tearing line from the middle or folding line along two mutually parallel edges to points near the edge that is parallel with the folding line, and then extending them along the last mentioned edge until they meet, and thereby forming a U-shaped tearing line which, when torn, exposes the whole surface containing the written matter.

The tearing means may consist of either two rows of perforations parallel or substantially parallel as aforesaid, of a single line Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 1, 1919.

Serial No. 10,061.

of perforations showing at a point of its length a tongue to be taken hold of, or of a thread stitched in a part of the letter-card or the like.

Figure 1 is a front elevation of a lettercard equippedwith one form of this invention and shown in open position;

Fig. 2 is a similar view with the card closed;

Fig. 3 is a rear elevation of the card in open posltion;

Fig. 4 is a front elevation of a letter-card provided with a U-shaped tearing strip;

Fig. 5 is a similar view showing the tearing element in the form of a thread;

Fig. 6 is a front elevation of a letter-card equipped with another form of the invention and shown open;

Fig. 7 is a similar view shown closed; and,

Fig. 8 is a similar View shownopen.

. The letter-card shown in Figs. 1 to 3 consists of a rectangular leaf having corners 6, 7, 8, 9, one half 6, 7, 10, 11 of which designed to remain intact, is enabled to receive on its outer face A any suitable image. The other half. 10, 11, 8, 9 is ruled on its outer face B to receive the address and shows on three sides the tearing lines 12, 1, 1 and 5, lines 1, 1 being here shown parallel to one another but which may obviously be convergent, and being united by a curved slit 2 forming the tongue 3-to be taken hold of.

The inner faces A B of the letter card are intended to receive the letter; one half of its periphery is gummed, preferably on the part A.

This letter-card is closed in the usual way by wetting the gummed margins and in folding the leaf into two arts. To open the letter-card, the tongue 3 is disengaged and is pulled so as to tear off the strip 4 comprised between the lines 1, 1, then the fingers are engaged in the opening thus made so as to extend such opening on the lines 12 and 5 up to the fold 10, 11. By such means the half A A remains intact and keeps its marginal. part which is reinforced by the marginal part of the part B B as shown in Fig. 3.

If the half A is illustrated, it may be kept and put in an album as for a post-card; the reinforcement produced by the doubling of the margin allows the lettercard to be easily slipped into the slits of the album notwithstanding the want of stiffness of the paper usually used for the manufacture of letter-- cards.

The strip 4, instead of being placed only near to the side 8,9, may be prolongatecl and.

bent so as to extend also on the side 8, 10 and even on the side 9, 11, as shown in Fig. 4;.

One may even, while retaining the advantages of the aforesaid letter-card, substitute for the aforesaid opening device, any other opening device allowing the tearing of the half B B without attacking the half A A, for instance by a thread stitched to the half B B on the line 12, 1, 5, as shown in Fig. 5. y

In Figs. 6. to 8, 6, 7 8, 9f designate the angles of the leaf and 10, 11 the fold which divides the leaf into two halves, the outer faces of which are indicated by A and B and the inner faces by A and B. 12, 2 1, 2, 5 is the tearing line provided in the half B". 7

At one of the angles of such line for in stance at 2 a slit is rovided, which may be in the shape of quadrant or any other similar shape so as to produce a tongue 3 easily ulled and taken hold of.

An arrow indicates the direction of the pull to operate the tongue so as to obtain the tearing, on the one hand, from 2 to 2 and to 12 and, on the other hand, from 2 to 5*.

Without departing from the invention, a second tongue may be provided at the angle 2 Claims: 7 a 1. A letter card consisting of a rectangular sheet folded at its middle, one of the halves having parallel weakened lines for tearing which extend continuously from a point of the fold to another point of the fold following the two edges of said half adjacent to the fold and the edge opposite to this fold, and the other half of the letter card being free from means for tearing. i

2. A letter-card consisting of a sheet folded upon itself and secured at its margin in the foldable condition and provided with a weakened line extending along said margin and terminating in the folding line, and a second weakened line parallel with said margin and connected to the first said weakened line by a curved slit which forms a tongue between the twoweakened lines.

3. A letter-card consisting of a sheet f0lded upon itself and secured at its margin in the foldable condition and provided with a weakened line extending along said margin and terminating in the folding line, said line including at least a part of a curved slit, whereby a manipulating tongue is formed at the tearing line, and whereby the letter-card may be entirely opened to the fold without departing from the predetermined course marked by said weakened line.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed my name in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

LEON PLANGHE.

Witnesses:

EUGlENE WATT-IER, DAvID'O. POOLE, Jr.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of" Batents, Washington, D. 0. 

